January 21, 2008 · 10:22 AM

Surfing Risks

Read live from the second panel this morning. Martin Varsavsky will moderate the discussion "Surfing Risks", which will center around the following questions:

International investors are nowadays normal in the economy landscape. Which influences do they exert? And do those investors really respect the business culture of the companies that they invest in? How can investors come to a promising decision? Where are risks and how can they be minimized?

DLD conference is happy to welcome very distinguished speakers:

Philipp Freise works for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and was in charge of the acquisition of ProSieben Sat1.

Simon Levene is Venture-Partner at Accel und was one of the key businessmen at Yahoo!

Morten Lund invests his money in internet start-ups. He invested in Skype quite early. At age 35, he was already holding shares of 80 companies.

Ashish patel is Managing Director for Europe, Israel and the Middle East at Intel Capital, the strategical investment organisation of the intel corporation.

Martin Varsavsky comes from Argentina and manages FON, the biggest Wifi-Community in the the world. He also invests in start-ups.
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Martin Varsavsky asks the first question to the panelists: "How will markets look like in a few years?"

Ashish Patel assumes reduced activity in the markets.

Martin Varsavsky reports from his home country Argentina what happens, when a country borrows money from the IMF (International Monetary Fund).

Simon Levene describes what happened in the UK when bank customers worried about their money and queued in front of the Northern Rock Bank to get their money back before it ran out

Morten Lund introduces himself as an investor who "does anything but porn, weapons and assholes."

He says that in good times even the butcher's wife buys a Louis Vuitton bag (laughs). Hard times are regulating the market. Or, as Lund says, "When the tide is out, you see who's swimming naked." In times of recession, only passionate entrepreneurs run their own business and consultants go back into their safe jobs. He says: "I have no clue, I just can't stop investing."

He states that in the future, markets will grow: "When you have energy AND technology, you can do everything with a laptop."

Martin Varsavsky asks: Since the last panel was about India and China, what do investors think about the European markets?

Philipp Freise reports that his company invested twice as much money in Europe than in Asia.

Simon Levene, who has moved back from Silicon Valley to the UK, mentions the "inferiority complex" of European companies. He thinks that talent can be everywhere.

Martin Varsavsky says that he met Steve Jobs some weeks ago, saying that mobile services are a lot better in the US than in Europe. Therefore, he asks: Do you agree with Steve Jobs? Ashish Patel disagrees.

Martin Varsavsky broaches the issue of old and new media: Is old media dead? He cites the example that Google keeps on mentioning that TV ads - in contrast to digital advertising - are expensive and ineffective.

Morten Lund says that he became a publisher a few weeks ago: "I just overtook the biggest newspaper in Denmark." This newspaper is called Nyhedsavisen .

Philipp Freise does not agree with the negative view of traditional mass media: "TV touches the majority of the people."

Simon Levene says: "I'm not very bullish on old media." He believes in two models of media economy: ad-based and subscription-based media. However, he states that in advertising the money follows the audience. And audiences are moving online."

He says, he himself hasn't bought a CD or newspaper in seven years. The media experience of today's young people is very different than ten years before and traditional media companies have to adapt. "Owners of old media have hard times ahead. Money goes elsewhere."

Varsavsky asks: "What will be the next "Wow" technology in 2008/2009 in your opinion?

Ashish Patel says that alternative energy and health care innovations such as remote monitoring will become important in an aging society.

Varsavsky himself says that "23 and me" is pretty high on his own "wow" scale.

Last question from Varsavsky: "What have you done in the last years that was extremely risky?"

Philipp Freise answers: "Buying Pro7." That was because the survival of old media is so questionable. He sees a trend in the consolidation of old media. Former German broadcasters become European broadcasters at the moment collaborate more than in the past.
At the end of the panel, there remains some time for questions from the audience:

One man asks: "Will privacy concerns of the users a threat to online marketing?"

Martin Varsavsky: "Europe has a tradition of privacy protection. But also the US is getting more aware about this issue."

Simon: "It is still an unsolved problem - data is being collected and the users can't do much about it." We have to build an "implicit trust" in the companies that deal with our private data. Such a protection should not be left to governments, but to the market. "Users have a voice and can protest against privacy concerns". He also cites the StudiVZ case that made news some weeks ago - users successfully voiced their protest against a new feature that they suspected of violating their privacy.

For a last question about the future of the music industry there is hardly any time left. There will be a separate panel on this, but Marton finds a short answer: "A day only has 24 hours. There is only a limited amount of media that people can consume during that time". He believes in a flatrate model: "It will be like all you can eat".

 

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